Archbishop Cordileone doubles down on gay marriage stance

Updated 10:11 pm, Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has resisted calls to withdraw from the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone has resisted calls to withdraw from the March for Marriage in Washington, D.C.

Photo: Michael Short, Special To The Chronicle

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Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is seen at the Archdiocese of San Francisco on Thursday, June 6, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.

Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone is seen at the Archdiocese of San Francisco on Thursday, June 6, 2013 in San Francisco, Calif.

Photo: Lea Suzuki, The Chronicle

Archbishop Cordileone doubles down on gay marriage stance

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Same-sex marriage isn't a debate in San Francisco. It's state law. Same-sex marriages take place every day in the city, including at City Hall.

That's why, despite all the heat he's getting, it is puzzling that San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone continues to stubbornly insist on speaking at the March for Marriage on Thursday in Washington, D.C.

A long list of local politicians and community leaders, including Mayor Ed Lee, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Nancy Pelosi, have signed letters imploring Cordileone not to participate in the divisive, politically charged event.

He has no intention of skipping the event, he said. In fact, he said, the march is "not anti-LGBT." It is simply affirming "marriage as the conjugal union of a husband and wife." Which, of course, is exactly the text of opponents of same-sex marriage. What does he say to the couples who have legally married? That their union doesn't exist? He doesn't think that is hurtful to the gay community in his archdiocese?

But that's just the start. Cordileone said the opponents of the march are simply mistaken when they say the National Organization for Marriage, which is an organizer, connects "homosexuality with pedophilia and incest."

Splitting hairs

That's just rhetorical hair-splitting.

The National Organization for Marriage may not have made those statements, but one of the event co-sponsors, the Family Research Council, certainly has. Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization devoted to fighting bigotry and hate speech, said the Family Research Council has been listed as a hate group since 201o.

"And it wasn't a tough call," she said. "They put out so much demonizing material it was just overwhelming. It is just a lineup of people who like to demean gay people. If he is trying to make an excuse for them, as someone from an established religious organization, it is downright shocking."

The law center has a long list of hateful, inflammatory statements by Family Research Council officials. For instance, on Feb. 1, 2013, council Vice President Rob Schwarzwalder, discussing the debate about allowing gay men in the Boy Scouts, said, "The reality is, homosexuals have entered the Scouts in the past for predatory purposes."

In a 2011 fundraising letter, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins complained about the popular, antibullying video series "It Gets Better."

Perkins called it "disgusting. And it is part of a concerted effort to persuade kids that homosexuality is OK and actually to recruit them into that lifestyle."

Cordileone has an explanation for that, too. He's just affirming love and marriage, he said.

"Rest assured," he wrote, "that if the point of this event were to single out a group of individuals and target them for hatred, I would not be there."

Really? Let's just take a look at some of the others who will also be speaking.

Comparisons to bestiality

The Rev. Bill Owens Sr. of the Coalition of African American Preachers, has said, "Well, if it is a civil right for a man to marry a man and woman to marry a woman, what's the difference of a man deciding he wants to have sex with a dog?"

Then there's former Family Research Council president and fringe presidential candidate Gary Bauer, who said, "The ultimate goal of homosexual rights activists is not to legalize same-sex marriage. Rather it is to silence those who disagree with them and, if necessary, throw them in jail."

Cordileone can say he doesn't endorse that kind of hate speech, but you can bet those who are participating won't make that distinction.

"If he shares the stage with those people, he has to own this," Beirich said. "What he is doing is providing cover for people who bash gay people. He has to own that."

Now, you say: "It's a free country. The archbishop gets to make his personal views known."

Not a debate in S.F.

And that's true. But he is here to represent his congregation. Same-sex marriage isn't a debate in his archdiocese. It's a fact.

Cordileone is flying across the country as the only announced representative of the Catholic Church to participate in an event that surely has little support in San Francisco. If the archbishop would like to take on gang violence or homelessness - the church-affiliated St. Vincent de Paul homeless shelter is one of the largest in the city - that would be fine.

But the fact is that this marriage crusade is his issue, not San Francisco's. There may be a place where his views would represent the community. This isn't it.

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